.303 British bullets

[lyman]

Several years ago I bought some WWII vintage .303 ball. The stuff was British manufacture with Mk VII bullets. They were really cheap and I bought them only for the bullets. I pulled the bullets and loaded a bunch of them with my standard .303 British load of IMR 4064 powder and they shot very well indeed. I actually primed a few cases and used the cordite from the cases I'd pulled the bullets from (I don't know how the Brits got it in but I couldn't quite get every strand in) I think I used Remington brass for this experiment and CCI large rifle primers. I did replace the cardboard disc over the cordite. It actually shot pretty well. Cordite isn't corrosive but it is very hot burning and a bit hard on the bore so I just did a few and wouldn't recommend it unless I was completely out of powder and unlikely to get anymore for a long spell but it worked better than I thought it would.

If you want as close as you'll ever get to the real original Brit military stuff and don't mind pulling bullets from geriatric old Brit loads this will work, thought a bit expensive in the end. A lot of later .303 military ball loads weren't Mk VII. If it isn't marked Mk VII it's probably plain old lead core.

when loading cordite,

the case is formed, as in drawn to length
the cordite is dropped in
then the neck was formed

and the bullet seated

[Art]

when loading cordite,

the case is formed, as in drawn to length
the cordite is dropped in
then the neck was formed

and the bullet seated

Now that is really interesting. I had no idea. Thanks .